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ginia SOLs. These models include important geo metric and physical concepts that underlie climate models, without the complexity found in sophisti cated models used in practice. I begin with a brief overview of the history of the climate change, followed by a discussion about the outcomes from burning one gallon of gasoline. The stage is set to describe three increasingly sophisti cated models of climate change, which is the theme for this article. It is hard to believe, but the study of what we now refer to as global warming goes back 200 years. In fact, in 1800 the scientist and musician William Herschel discovered the infra - red portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and found it to be hotter than the rest of the visible spectrum. In 1824 Jo seph Fourier calculated that a planetary object, the size of Earth, to be cooler than it is, given its dis tance from the Sun. Therefore, he reasoned, there must be something else apart from the incoming solar radiation that keeps the planet warmer. John Cook on his “ Skeptical Science ” website states, that: He [Joseph Fourier], suggested that energy coming from the sun in the form of visible and ultraviolet light known in Fourier's time as ‘ luminous heat, ’ was able to pass through the atmosphere and heat the planet's surface, but the `non - luminous heat,' now known as infrared radiation, emitted by the Earth's surface, was slowed down on its outward journey back to space. Joseph Fourier recognized that the atmosphere acts as an insulating blanket. There are many other early contributors to the developing study of global warming (see the Skeptical Science website), but we shall concentrate on just two of the more signif icant ones next. In 1861, John Tyndall described the way CO₂ in hibits the transmission of infrared radiation. He observed that some gases were transparent to radi History

ated heat whilst others were good absorbers for radiated heat. Water vapor and carbon dioxide, de spite being trace gases in the atmosphere, were found to be particularly good absorbers. John Tyn dall was particularly interested in the cause of the ice ages and suggested that changes in the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere could influence the Earth's climate. Later, in 1896 the Swedish scien tist, Svante Arrhenius, calculated that Earth ’ s warming would increase when doubling the amount of CO₂ content in the atmosphere. His re sult was surprisingly accurate by today ′ s standards, with an increase of 5 - 6°C average warming global ly. In his 1908 book, Svante Arrhenius, pointed out that the Earth is about 30 degrees C warmer be cause of the gases contained in the atmosphere. He

claimed CO₂ was an important regulator of the Earth's temperature (See Anderson et al., 2016 for more details). These sections use mathematics aligned to sixth grade SOLs.

Burning One Gallon of Gasoline

In this section, I will show the impact of burning one gallon of gasoline on carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapor. Then, we will explore the impact of burning gasoline in the U.S. over a typical year. These sections use mathematics aligned to sixth grade SOLs. When gasoline burns, the carbon and hydrogen in the burning process separate. The hydrogen com bines with the oxygen in the air to form water, and the carbon combines with the oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide. Recall that a carbon atom has an atomic weight of 12, the nucleus contains 6 pro tons and 6 neutrons. One oxygen atom has an How Much Carbon Dioxide is Produced?

Virginia Mathematics Teacher vol. 47, no. 2

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